At a press conference earlier this month, President Joe Biden raised eyebrows when he said, “Elon Musk’s cooperation and/or technical relationships with other countries is worthy of being looked at. Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate — I’m not suggesting that,” he said, “I’m suggesting it’s worth being looked at, and that’s all I’ll say.”
Biden is right, and it’s nothing personal against Musk. In fact, the president’s comments weren’t really about the SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter head at all. Rather, they were about ensuring the United States keeps a broadly consistent, air-tight defense shield against one of America’s leading adversaries: the People’s Republic of China.
While it’s not necessarily problematic for America’s national security, the richest man in the world — who has met with CCP leadership and taken over $1 billion in loans from China, which is home to Tesla’s second-largest market — has become heavily connected to the communist nation. Musk’s business ventures have thrust him into a vital national security role, and it’s fair for the federal government to worry about what the ambitious and predatory CCP might be able to get its hands on with its close proximity to him. Just this week, for example, a report found that China is emulating SpaceX’s designs to build a reusable mega-rocket.
That’s why Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, is seeking confidential briefings on any vulnerabilities, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also introduced legislation that would ensure U.S. contractors’ CCP connections don’t interfere with America’s geopolitical goals.
Maybe Musk is unintentionally creating vulnerabilities for the U.S.; maybe he isn’t. But the country would be remiss if it didn’t engage in responsible due diligence to find out for sure one way or the other.
At the same time, however, this conversation shouldn’t start and end with Elon Musk. It should be extensive and extend to all the U.S.’s national security contractors.
When it comes to defense, China’s espionage operation is second-to-none. The country is doing everything from planting backdoors in our technology to having CCP-trained spies work with and develop relational ties to the American national security influencers from whom it seeks to steal defense secrets.
This problem is only getting worse. A recent Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) survey found 160 publicly-reported instances of Chinese espionage from 2000-2021 — 24% occurred between 2000-2009, while 76% occurred between 2010-2021. If that’s not enough to convince one of the growing scope of this problem, consider that the U.S. just charged many with Chinese espionage, while just days ago, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California sentenced a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot with more than 20 years of military service and experience as a defense contractor for acting as an agent of China.
FBI Director Chris Wray put it best: “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China.”
This problem isn’t going away, so Biden is doing the right thing by following Republican intelligence officials’ lead in addressing it head-on.
As Washington looks to continue bulletproofing the U.S. defense industry from China’s espionage machine in the next Congress, the congressional intelligence committees should begin holding hearings and briefings to deepen its understanding of this problem, while the White House should instruct the Department of Defense and all relevant agencies to vet its contractors in ways that ensure their relationships with adversarial nations don’t pose any national security risks. It’s what’s necessary to keep the American people safe and the CCP at bay.
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Michael J. Pappas is a former U.S. representative for New Jersey.
